As I have not updated this blog for quite some time I thought I would just list some of the things I am up to at the moment.

 

The main thing I am doing is running TOPS-20 on SIMH. I have BASIC-PLUS-2 installed on it. I have the listing of a program I wrote in the late 1970s when I was at school, and I am slowly retyping it in so that I can get it running again. The one frustration I have at the moment with SIMH is that the actual date and time falls behind quite badly. I think this may be to do with some of the idling settings I have set, I really need to look at that. The thing that really impresses me is that TOPS-20 has no problems with dates after 2000.

 

I would love to find the ALGOL68C compiler I used to use on the DEC-20, I still have some ALGOL68C listings too.

 

I have two VAXstation 3100 Model 38s, one with an expansion storage box. I also have several VAXstation 4000 VLCs, although two of them have developed a power supply fault and I am beginning to wonder if I have used hard disks that require too much power. I am running VMS 7.3 under the hobbyist license on all these systems, but only tend to keep one of them switched on. I am in the gradual process of compiling and setting up SSH.

 

I have a TK50Z drive which I wanted to use to recover a TK50 tape from, but when I finally got the drive working I could not find the tape! Still, I used it to restore some tapes for a colleague who used VAX in the distant past too. I have recently acquired a TZ87 which I have yet to test and a TK70 which I later realised I could not use as it does not have a SCSI interface.

 

I also have an Alpha, a DEC 2000 Model 300 AXP (aka Jensen). I only switch this on occasionally, but it is the fastest of the machines I have.